Gleneagles

Redesigning Gleneagles: a luxury experience for modern travellers

Role: Senior UI Designer

Project type: Mobile-first website redesign

Sector: Hospitality

Clients/Customers: B2C

Blending elegance with performance, I co-led the visual design for Gleneagles’ mobile-first digital transformation, bringing its luxury brand to life online while delivering measurable business growth.

The result was a rich, immersive site that felt as refined as the hotel itself, while dramatically improving mobile bookings, data capture, and flexibility for the in-house team.

Key wins at a glance

Mobile traffic grew to 50% of all site visits

20% booking conversion rate across devices

70% YoY increase in bookings (July–Sept 2020)

8 months from discovery to delivery

My role

UI leadership, hands-on execution, and high-impact collaboration

  • Collaborated closely with devs to ensure immersive animations and transitions elevated the UX without compromising speed.

  • Worked alongside the UX designer to translate journey maps into scalable, modular visual systems.

  • Tested and refined responsive behaviour for key mobile touchpoints, especially booking and content-heavy areas.

  • Communicated design rationale clearly to a wide range of stakeholders, including luxury brand directors and senior leadership.

Goals

Designing for luxury, performance and flexibility

  • Prioritise mobile – Deliver a seamless, engaging mobile-first experience in response to a rising trend in mobile and tablet bookings.

  • Elevate brand storytelling – Capture Gleneagles’ heritage and beauty through elegant, immersive design and imagery.

  • Streamline the booking journey – Make it easier and more intuitive for users to book rooms, experiences, and restaurants online.

  • Optimise performance – Improve site speed and responsiveness across all devices, especially mobile.

  • Enable agility – Introduce a modular design system to allow internal teams to build new pages quickly and consistently.

Design inspiration

Bringing the landscape and legacy into the UI

Every design decision was rooted in Gleneagles’ unique setting and spirit:

  • Tonal inspiration came from the surrounding golf courses and Scottish landscape with muted greens, soft neutrals, and warm accent colours.

  • Framing and UI elements were inspired by the hotel’s Art Deco interiors, evoking a sense of curated luxury.

  • Typography and layout choices focused on clarity, calm, and refinement, mirroring the guest experience.

This helped ensure the new digital platform didn’t just perform well, it felt like Gleneagles from the very first interaction.

outcome

A digital flagship for a world-class brand

The redesigned Gleneagles site launched as a standout example of luxury digital design that’s refined, responsive, and results-driven.

Mobile bookings soared, performance benchmarks were exceeded, and the site set a new internal standard for digital agility. The platform now supports everything from room bookings to event marketing and editorial content, all housed within a flexible, brand-led framework.